Cop racks up 5 lawsuits in less than a year

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - Did Albuquerque Police know they hired a bad apple? Five lawsuits later you think they would have realized it.

Despite numerous allegations of outrageous behavior and big legal bills the city has run up defending him, one officer has slipped under the public radar for years.

Walter Drutok patrolled Albuquerque streets as a cop and was the target of a numerous of lawsuits for how he did business.

Posing as one of Albuquerque's finest, Drutok's record reads more like one of Albuquerque’s biggest liabilities.

Judge for yourself.

• February 2008: Drutok was accused of using his baton to whack a man in the legs. The man wore leg braces. His federal lawsuit claims it was so bad, he couldn't walk for weeks.
• May 2008: Two women say Drutok maced them and roughed them up while they were fixing a car stereo. They also federally sued.
• June 2008: A witness claims she watched Drutok tackle a man “like a linebacker on a football field.” A federal suit also says he maced the man.
• July 2008: a Lovelace security guard caught Drutok and a police service aid having sex in a city car. For that the state board that oversees cops suspended him for 30 days.
• October 2008: a witness claims he watched Drutok hit and mace a woman on the street.

Then there is the event that finally cost him his badge.

In January of 2009, Drutok was following his wife when he saw a truck rear-end her car. He walked up to the other driver, identified himself as a cop and then beat him up. A report says the beating didn't stop until other cops showed up.

He resigned before he could be fired and was convicted of battery. The man also sued and the city settled.

The state stripped Drutok of his license to be a cop over this and another allegation that he had locked up a mentally disabled man without cause and then failed to report it.

Drutok has cost the city hundreds of thousands of dollars. Because of the holiday no one at APD could answer KRQE News 13’s questions about why he wasn't fired sooner or how much he's cost the city with all these lawsuits.